I was looking forward to trying tapioca, so when my new friend Priscila's family offered to make some for dinner, I felt excited. I waited for the rest of the family to prepare their tapioca so that I knew what to do, and then I spread my own toppings onto the white, powdery surface. I folded my tapioca in half and reached for my knife and fork to cut it apart. Most Brazilians do not eat food with their hands. Priscila's mother, Lucy, stopped me. "You can eat it like this," she told me in Portuguese. She picked up the folded tapioca from her plate and bit into it like a soft taco. I tried it too. The tapioca was soft, warm and chewy. It was almost like a tortilla, but not quite. The dry surface absorbed the flavors from the filling. Even the crumbs from the outside tasted good--I could not resist licking my fingers for the last tasty bits. I knew I would be making more tapioca at home.
On that first Sunday at my friend Priscila's house, Lucy showed me how to prepare tapioca properly. I have used her method ever since. First, Lucy heated an empty skillet for two minutes while she sifted white mandioca flour. When the skillet was hot, she gently tapped a thin layer of the flour into the pan. After waiting two minutes, she carefully flipped the tapioca onto the other side. I was very surprised to see that the powdery flour had become a flat, white circle. After heating the tapioca for another two minutes, she placed it onto a plate to eat.
Before you eat tapioca, you add a filling and fold the tapioca in half.
